Friday, 4 October 2013

The college that never materialised

All of us known that Lalbagh
in Bangalore
was begun by Hyder Ali and developed by Tipu Sultan. We also know that it was subsequently
taken over by the British who raised it into one of the most important
botanical gardens in India.

Lalbagh is home to a number
of exotic tress, plants and shrubs. But
not many know that the buildings in Lalbagh too have a history of their own and
today, they stand as mute spectators to the vast throngs that visit he garden,
oblivious to the standing history of the botanical gardens.

Lalbagh is currently managed
by the Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Karnataka. The directorate operated
from a red building in front of the office of the Director of Horticulture,
Karnataka.

This building has a history
of its own. It was built in 1920 when Gustav Hermann Krumbiegal (1865-1956) was
Director of Horticulture. He had an
ambitious plan of building a horticulture college on the Lalbagh premises.

Krumbiegel, a German botanist
and garden designer, spent years dedicating his life and service to the
development of Lalbagh. He had also plans of constructing tree lined avenues in
Bangalore which
would host a variety of plants and shrubs.

Krumbiegel was born in Lohmen
near Dresden in Germany and he trained as a
horticulturist. In 1884, he worked in Schwerin and from 1885 to 1887 he worked as a landscape
gardener in Hamburg.
In 1888, he moved to England,
designing flower beds at the Hyde Park and joined the staff at the Royal
Botanical Gardens in Kew. He then came to India and in 1893 was the Curator of the
Botanical Garden in Princely Baroda. He then was with
the GovernmentBotanical Garden in Ooty.

It was in 1908 that the
reigning Wodeyar monarch, Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the ruler of Mysore, sought his services and persuaded him
to succeed John Cameron as economic botanist and superintendent of Lalbagh.

Krumbiegel was solely
responsible for introducing numerous plants in Lalbagh. He was also closely associated
with the Mysore Horticultural Society that was started in 1912. Although a keen
botanist, he was also a well-known architect. Noting his expertise, the then Dewan of
Mysore appointed him as an architectural consultant despite protests from the
British Resident in Mysore.
During the Second World War, Germans in India
were declared as enemies and Krumbiegel was along with other Germans kept in an
internment camp in Bangalore.

His plan of starting a
horticulture college was first shot down by the British and then by the
Karnataka Government. Krumbeigal had conceived the red structure as part of the
college.

He wanted the college in
Lalbagh as he thought such an institution could provide both students and researchers
with materials on hand and at short notice. He also saw that the college could
become one of its kind in the world as it would be located amidst rare plants,
shrubs, trees and seeds.

Since Lalbagh was a botanical
garden, he thought a college on horticulture would be ideal. He even prepared
designs for the college but since the plan was never accepted, it was destroyed.

Today, it is this very red
structure that serves as the office for the Director of Horticulture.

The College
of Horticulture did come and it was
the first in India
but it was not on Lalbagh.

By the way, horticulture
accounts for 40 per cent of Karnataka’s income that is generated from the combined
agriculture sector. This state also boasts of the largest area under flower
crop cultivation and ranks third in the production of the same across India. In
addition, Karnataka is the largest producer of spices, aromatic and medicinal
crops.

Karnataka was the first state
to have a horticulture department in India and that it was established
in 1963.

Coming back to Krumbeigal, he
served Karnataka for 25 years and retired in the year 1932. After his
retirement, he settled at Bangalore and worked
as the Landscape Advisor to the state of Mysore,
till his death in 1956.